Steven Tyler on ‘American Idol': ‘Not My Cup of Tea’

Flamboyant singer Steven Tyler announced his exit from the judging panel of ‘American Idol‘ a few weeks ago, and now the Aerosmith frontman has gone on the record (so to speak) about what working on the show was really like.

“I loved it and I hated it,” he told Rolling Stone, saying that he took the gig because he and his bandmates were fighting and he needed something to do until things smoothed over. “It was a great job, I sat next to J. Lo and I made a ton of money. It was a moment in life and it became larger than life.”

So what were the downsides?

For starters, it was a lot of work — Tyler put in seven hours a day on the ‘Idol’ set and then often spent all night working on the new Aerosmith album. On top of that, he didn’t like that producers expected him to channel the notoriously nasty Simon Cowell.

“The show’s about kids and what you do to nurture their talent,” Tyler said. “They wanted me to take the piss out of the kids and I don’t have that in me. That’s not what I’m about. That’s more about that other guy. Not me.”

Overall, the singer says ‘Idol’ simply “wasn’t my cup of tea,” and he’s happy to be back on familiar ground as a rock star. But Aerosmith’s ‘Music from Another Dimension!,’ set to drop in November, will still have a little bit of the show’s influence. The album features a duet between Tyler and country superstar Carrie Underwood — who, as you’ll recall, shot to fame after winning the fourth season of the talent competition in 2005.